Rain, rain go away

WATER ROARS over the dam on the Saxon Flowage at Saxon, Wis., last week, when the Gogebic Range received 6.5 inches of rain. At this time of year, there would normally be a trickle of water flowing over the dam on the Montreal River.

The 8.4 inches of rain that Ironwood received in August didn’t set a monthly rainfall record, but it came close.

A whopping 6.53 inches fell in the last week of the month, the result of numerous thunderstorm cloudbursts, after a relatively dry first three-plus weeks of August.

The 8.4 inches compares to the record 8.86 inches recorded in 1941, according to the National Weather Service office in Marquette. Records are kept for about the past 110 years.

In comparison, 1.84 inches fell on Ironwood in August of 2012 and the long-term August average for Ironwood is 3.37 inches, according to the Marquette NWS office.

Duluth received only 2 inches this year in August.

September in Ironwood began as soggy as August, as another .62 inch fell for the first two 24-hour periods of the month, although sunshine returned to the Gogebic Range on Monday.

The forecast is much more favorable for dry conditions, with no chance of rain until next Monday, when there’s a 50 percent chance of a thunderstorm.

For 2013, Ironwood has already received a whopping 41.1 inches of precipitation, compared to 21.76 inches through August of 2012.